An informational and instructional video guide on TerraCycle’s most recent recycling innovation, the Zero Waste Box. These boxes allow any individual, household, or business to effortlessly collect waste and send it to TerraCycle for recycling.

Context

Waste is non-existent in nature, where any outputs become valuable inputs to another element of the natural system. Unfortunately, this does not hold true for human-generated waste. Cigarette butts, snack bags, plastic bottles and other forms of product packaging offer no benefit to natural systems, and in fact disturb or even damage the ecosystems that surround us. To deal with these waste streams, garbage and other waste materials are commonly disposed of in landfills or incinerators.
TerraCycle rejects this prevailing linear model of disposal, developing recycling processes for traditionally non-recyclable waste. Our mission to eliminate the idea of waste lead to the development of the Zero Waste Box. There are a variety of boxes available, with varying degrees or required separation: waste stream-specific boxes (such as for electronic waste or coffee capsules); room-separation boxes (such as for kitchen or bathroom waste); and even the No Separation box for any accepted, non-hazardous waste. Recycling is as simple as filling the box with waste, and then sending it to TerraCycle for recycling.

Results

To date, over 5,300 Zero Waste Boxes have been sold globally, helping to divert over 21,300 pounds of waste from landfills.